The strangest game at Gamescom mixes Marxist ideals with a communal version of Minecraft, but is it just too weird?

There’s something very freshing about a presentation given by a British games developer. Where American teams will shout and holler, and Japanese creators worry obsessively about whether anyone’s taping them, most British devs come across as extremely laid-back and/or mildly autistic. We saw both The Tomorrow Children and No Man’s Sky at Gamescom today, and it was clear that neither presenter was very comfortable with talking in public – with not even the high quality of their games giving them the confidence to overcome it.

We’ll report back on No Man’s Sky later but we were particularly interested in seeing The Tomorrow Children, because although we were huge impressed by the trailer at Sony’s pre-Gamescom conference it wasn’t that clear what was really going on. After having sat through a 30 minute hands-off demonstration we’re still only a little wiser.

Q-Games’ Dylan Cuthbert may not be much at public speaking but he’s one of the unsung heroes of the games industry, having revolutionised the use of 3D graphics in video games with titles such as Starglider and Star Fox. He’s worked most of his life in Japan and in 2001 formed Q-Games, who are most famous for the PixelJunk series of 2D games. But as Cuthbert himself proclaims The Tomorrow Children is his triumphant return to 3D visuals.

The Tomorrow Children – chainsaw for victory

The back story to The Tomorrow Children is… different to say the least and involves a disastrous experiment in 1960s Russia that tried to meld all human minds into one single consciousness. It didn’t work, most of the world’s population were killed, and now you play as a ‘projection clone’ exploring ‘The Void’ and trying to build and defend your own communal town.

There’s little in the way of fixed goals but you do need to mine resources from The Void, chipping away at weird three-dimensional ‘islands’ made up of dismembered heads and other dream-like imagery. This element of the game comes across very much like Minecraft, with your little Soviet lady hacking away to create tunnels and caverns from which you can retrieve your loot.

Some of this is simply materials to build other structures, that you can bring back to town, but there are also little Russian dolls which can bring back a real human into the world. Or there are trees you can harvest for apples and special items that can instantly grow a bridge or create a tunnel.

Crossing The Void requires a vehicle of some sort, which by default is a communal anti-gravity bus. But there are also cars waiting parked outside, that have been created by other players, and a jetpack is already part of the inventory – and used to zip up to a part of another island.

Upon arrival in town the resources are dropped off and the developer enters the local labour office to collect his reward. True to the game’s communist theme you don’t get to keep any of the resources you collect, but instead drop them off at a communal lot and make do with ration coupons instead – which are cashed in for new items and abilities.

The Tomorrow Children – weirdly beautiful

According to Cuthbert the game has no serious aspirations to political commentary, and the Soviet theme was chosen purely because it seemed cool and because it fit the idea of having to co-operate in order to achieve any larger goals.

This is demonstrated when a giant metal Godzilla-like monster appears to attack the town, and a siren sees everyone rushing for ready-built turrets or whipping out a bazooka. The lone creature proves relatively easy to deal with though and as it collapses to the ground it becomes a new island to mine for resources – players swarming over it like ants at a picnic.

The Tomorrow Children is certainly a peculiar game, and one purposefully without structure. There are element of Minecraft but although you can create your own designs out of resource islands that’s not the focus of the game and will require a lot of team-work.

Much like Destiny communication is purposefully limited between strangers, although you can buy a whistle to get everyone’s attention or a megaphone to use actual voice chat. The majority of communication though is done by gestures, with everyone having the ability to down-vote those that aren’t pulling their weight – until they’re eventually chased by the police and throw in jail (which they can then bribe themselves out of).

The Tomorrow Children is a purposefully weird game and its sandbox design is brazenly short on structure and pre-ordained missions. But that, and the excellent ray-traced graphics, are meant to be all part of the appeal. Whether the final game will be a formless mess or the next Minecraft we don’t know, but we do know that at least it’s trying to be different.